


I Couldn’t Think of a Snappy Title: Incorporating Music Into Podfic

by growlery



Category: Podfic Fandom
Genre: Meta, Podfic Meta, music in podfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:20:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22152403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery
Summary: What this is: a very biased account of my feelings on music in podfic.What this isn’t: a blanket how-to guide for incorporating music into podfic.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	I Couldn’t Think of a Snappy Title: Incorporating Music Into Podfic

I love using music in podfic. I love using music in podfic _a lot_. So much so that I decided to make a post about it! If you disagree with anything I say here, that’s really cool! I’d love to hear about it if you’d like to leave a comment!

But don’t feel like I’m trying to boss you around and tell you what to do. I’m just telling you what _I_ do, because I love to talk about my interests and opinions. My ~artistic choices~, let me tell you about them.

* * *

## Why I Use Music

I don’t always use music in podfic. Sometimes it’s because I can’t find a song that I want to use, and sometimes it’s because I just don’t want to. I love music in podfic, but podfic doesn’t _need_ music. I don’t want to use music every time just for the sake of it, or because I feel like I should conform to a standard or convention. I want to create a specific effect, to complement the podfic I’m making in a specific way. It would feel less meaningful if I weren’t making an intentional decision to do it.

### intros and outros

For intro music, I want to set up the mood of the story, or provide some expectation of the tone or content. I’m trying to prime the listener for the story they’re about to hear and the feelings I want them to feel.

For outro music, I want to draw out the emotions that I want the listener to be feeling. I also like it as a way to provide space to process the story, because I’m making them keep listening until the podfic properly ends.

### scene breaks

I don’t use music for scene breaks very often, because I prefer to use silence instead. I see scene breaks in podfic as mostly functional: it’s useful to break down the audio into smaller parts, just like it’s useful to break down text in smaller parts. I have used music in place of silence before, as a way to return to the overall mood or tone I’m aiming to create with the podfic. It’s almost like a reminder of the whole before moving to the next part. I tried to find an example podfic and couldn’t, which shows how often I do this.

I do tend to use music for works split into distinct parts, or chapters, but I view that more as intro/outro music, and I’m using it for the same effect. A good example of this is [**friday never hesitate**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21467545), where the story is not chaptered but is split into seven parts, one for each day of the week. Having music between each day signals the clear ending of that day and the start of the next, breaking down the longer story into distinct sections.

### outliers that should not be counted

For [**Look Right Through It In Perfect Clarity**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18443354) , I spliced two fics together, since the second fic, **In Perfect Clarity** , occurred in the middle of the first fic, **Look Right Through It** . I embedded the audio of **In Perfect Clarity** in its chronological position in the audio of **Look Right Through It**. I placed the audio for the second fic in its chronological position in the audio of the first fic.

To more clearly indicate that the podfic was moving to a different story, I used music before and after the audio of **In Perfect Clarity**. I wanted to create the audio equivalent of a visual fade in/fade out, which signals a switch to a different, distinct place in the narrative. It’s like an audio cue to prepare for a change in story direction, which sets the expectation for an important narrative event.

* * *

## How I Pick Music

This is truly the most difficult part. I listen to a lot of music, but as soon as I want to find a specific song, I forget everything I have ever listened to. But I have my ways!

### phone a friend

I might say, “Hey, you got any recs for songs about unrequited love while one of you is also a werewolf?” or “I need a song for this PWP that’s like horny but also conveys INTENSE EMOTIONS.” I might also say, “You remember this fic? Yeah? What the fuck would I even want for music.”

I’m usually asking [**girlmarauders**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/girlmarauders/), because she a) has excellent and eclectic music taste and b) is a podfic music finding sorceress. Thank you for your service, friend.

### go back to the source

I check the author’s notes for any music they’ve listed as inspiration, or the song title if it’s based on song lyrics. A lot of the time, this will be the perfect music, as it’s literally the vision the writer had for the story!

This isn’t 100% reliable, though. Sometimes, the music that inspires a writer is just inspirational and relates to the story in precisely zero ways. Sometimes, the song that a title comes from only works out of context, and in context it’s about something completely different. Sometimes it fits perfectly lyrically, but melodically the tone is completely different from the tone I want for the podfic.

It’s usually worth checking, though, and it can be a great starting point for finding music that does work. I listen to music nearly exclusively through Spotify, where you can click on a song and then **Go to Song Radio** , and it takes you to a playlist of related songs. Sometimes the algorithm is good, actually.

### there’s a playlist for that

If I need a song that’s horny and emotions, I search Spotify for **horny and emotions**. This is a great strategy because there are usually a ton of results, so I end up with a bunch of different options to consider, but it’s also a terrible strategy because it means I spend an hour listening to music instead of working on the podfic. Great fun, though.

I also make my own playlists. Please see: I listen to a lot of music. I have a bunch of non-themed playlists, but I also have playlists called “shouty” and “melancholy” and “romo” where I put songs that fit that particular mood. It’s like a service to my future self, so when my mind is completely blank, I don’t have to search my entire music library.

* * *

## How Much of a Song I Use in a Podfic

It is extremely rare that I use the entirety of a song for podfic music. Of course, I have an exception that makes the rule: [**how winning is done**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18633259). For this podfic I used the whole of **Anyone But You** by **The Moldy Peaches** for the outro. This song isn’t very long and doesn’t have any natural breaks, but I thought it worked specifically because of that. It’s an extended outro, but it doesn’t feel like it drags on because there’s nothing instrumental, where the audio focus might be lost, and it’s pretty much all lyrics, which keeps the energy of the podfic going. (I hope.)

### the rule

I don’t have a _rule_ for music length, exactly, but I try not to go over a minute and a half for the intro, and usually keep to between 45 seconds and a minute. I’m trying to set the tone, evoke a certain mood, get the listener intrigued by the story to come, and it doesn’t usually take too long to do that.

There’s a point where the music stops building anticipation in the listener and they’re just waiting for the story to start, and that’s the last thing I want to happen. The music isn’t really a good companion to the podfic if it can be skipped without any impact on the story.

I worry about it a bit less for outro music, because I don’t feel like anything is lost by the listener ending it early. I want that time for the outro music for the listener to stay with the story a little longer and sit with what they’re feeling, and I don’t feel like that needs to last as long as I anticipate it to when I’m putting in the music.

Still, I try and keep to my minute and a half, because I don’t want to draw the podfic out past a point where I feel like it’s actually effective.

* * *

## How I Pick What Parts of the Song to Use

Like, obviously this varies depending on what music I’m using, but there are some things I always consider when deciding what I actually want to use from a song.

### for the intro: instrumentals are my friend

Usually I have music playing over the podfic intro, ie the part where I say: “STORY TITLE, written by WRITER and read by growlery”. I don’t usually read the metadata, ie fandoms or ships or tags, so this tends to be quite short. I usually pick a purely instrumental piece of music as the backing so there aren’t any lyrics to distract from my audio.

Sometimes the start of the song I want to use is long enough to cover this. Sometimes it isn’t, and sometimes I don’t want to use the song intro, so I’ll look for an instrumental section that I can use instead. I might pick something quite short and uncomplicated that I can loop for as long as I need instead of something that’s the right length but has a lot going on and would make the podfic intro difficult to understand.

### for the intro: but vocals are good too

I usually want to include some of the lyrics from the song in the intro, since they’re usually a big part of why I picked it for the podfic. Again, obv, depends on the specific song, but this tends to be a verse, usually the first or second, but whichever feels most appropriate for setting up the story.

Sometimes, I’ll use the end of the song, which feels counter-intuitive, but it often works better than a verse or chorus for me. [the cat who got the whipped cream](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15450456) is a good example of this; it uses the last part of **400 Lux** by **Lorde**. It’s wrapping up the song, so there’s the strong emotional resonance to start the podfic with, and then winding down to the natural ending of the song, to signal that the story’s about to begin.

It fully depends on the podfic and the song, though, and what I want to achieve with the music. For [**Sovereignty**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17332019), the intro music is the very start of the song, including the opening instrumental, and fades out just before the chorus starts. It’s kind of a lively introduction, which I wanted to build up the energy of the podfic, since the story starts with no exposition, just action.

For [**gather yourself safely**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658408), the intro music is the very last part of the song. It ends on a high, and is a distinct stop, rather than the more typical (for me) fade out. I wanted a really strong, warm energy going into the story, and having it start on a peak like that really carries it forward for me. There’s no easing into the story; it just starts.

### for the outro

I usually have my outro music start with something climactic, like the start of a chorus, or some part of the song where the music suddenly swells. I want to end the story on a high, with all the emotions of still going strong, and then slowly wind down, letting go of the story. I’ll often use the last chorus, up to the end of the song, partly because it has a natural ending built into it, but also because this is often the most intense part of the audio.

Sometimes, though, I’ll use the very start of a song, plus the first verse and/or chorus. Sometimes I don’t want to wind the podfic down; I want the music to almost relive the emotions of the story, to punctuate the tone or mood, and finish the podfic right as the music peaks.

### for scene breaks

This is usually purely instrumental and quite simple, because I want to complement the podfic audio. If there are lyrics, or a complicated melody, it switches the audio focus to the music, which is not what I want. Between scenes, I want to underscore the mood of the podfic, not pull the reader out of it.

### challenges

Sometimes, I want to use different parts of the song for a continuous stretch of music. For example, for [**Variations on a Theme**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455656), I used **May I Have This Dance** by **Francis and the Lights and Chance the Rapper**. I wanted Chance’s verse for the intro, but there wasn’t any convenient instrumental-only music nearby, so I spliced some in for a different section of the song for the podfic intro. Chance’s verse starts just after my audio ends because I don’t want the space a longer instrumental would provide; I want to jump right into building up the story.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i really would love to hear other podficcer's thoughts on this! i want to make an episode for [behind the pod](archiveofourown.org/collections/behindthepod) about incorporating music into podfic. let me know if you'd be interested in taking part!
> 
> you can find me on twitter at [tightleish](http://twitter.com/tightleish) (private) and [empleished](http://twitter.com/empleished) (public). 
> 
> not sponsored by or affiliated with or endorsed in any way by spotify.


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